Ecological role of sleep in maintaining optimal brain function in birds. This project aims to explain the function of sleep. Sleep is thought to maintain optimal brain functioning to support waking cognition. Nearly all sleep research is laboratory-based, which fails to realistically capture how animals benefit from sleep. Ecologists treat sleep as a simple behaviour, instead of as a heterogeneous neurophysiological state, while neuroscientists generally fail to appreciate the insights ecologica ....Ecological role of sleep in maintaining optimal brain function in birds. This project aims to explain the function of sleep. Sleep is thought to maintain optimal brain functioning to support waking cognition. Nearly all sleep research is laboratory-based, which fails to realistically capture how animals benefit from sleep. Ecologists treat sleep as a simple behaviour, instead of as a heterogeneous neurophysiological state, while neuroscientists generally fail to appreciate the insights ecological and evolutionary systems offer. This project adopts a cross-disciplinary approach, bringing together animal behaviour, ecology, evolution, anthropogenic disturbance and sleep neurophysiology. By doing so, the project will add a new dimension of understanding on the functions of sleep.Read moreRead less
Brains frozen in time: vertebrate neural adaptations to invading land . The evolution of terrestrial animals from fish was one of the most significant events in our evolution, yet little is known about how the brain evolved during this transition. This project aims to investigate the major novelties acquired in the evolution of the early vertebrate brain in order to determine the functional reasons for such changes, as well as identifying the timing and environmental factors driving such changes ....Brains frozen in time: vertebrate neural adaptations to invading land . The evolution of terrestrial animals from fish was one of the most significant events in our evolution, yet little is known about how the brain evolved during this transition. This project aims to investigate the major novelties acquired in the evolution of the early vertebrate brain in order to determine the functional reasons for such changes, as well as identifying the timing and environmental factors driving such changes. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the anatomy of the vertebrate brain with improved methods for reconstructing fossil brains to better understand our own neurological evolution. Expected outcomes include enhanced institutional collaborations within Australia, and between Australia, Canada and the USA.Read moreRead less
Buffering the ecosystem impact of invasive cane toads. This project aims to address the devastating ecological problems caused by invasive species, by developing a novel approach that does not rely upon eradicating the invader through training vulnerable native predators not to eat toxic cane toads. Expected outcomes of this project include building a broad coalition of conservation-focused groups, from private land-owners and local businesses through to Indigenous groups and government and non- ....Buffering the ecosystem impact of invasive cane toads. This project aims to address the devastating ecological problems caused by invasive species, by developing a novel approach that does not rely upon eradicating the invader through training vulnerable native predators not to eat toxic cane toads. Expected outcomes of this project include building a broad coalition of conservation-focused groups, from private land-owners and local businesses through to Indigenous groups and government and non-government agencies across the entire Kimberley region. It will also result in the evaluation of methods for deployment of taste-aversion at a landscape scale. This should provide significant benefits by conserving vulnerable fauna and building a powerful network within a region of high biodiversity in tropical Australia.Read moreRead less